Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-02-19
lean. for incorporated cities.

Should the proposed charter for
this city and that of its class fail to
mass. a bill that is now before the
House, will, if passed and tenable,
furni sh relief in regard to the only
point which we believe is to us
urgent. Mr.. Weber has introduced
bill which authorizes any incorpor-
ated city in this State to incur indebt'
edness for any of the objects or pur-
poses for which cities are incorpor-
ated, as provided by section Is OF
Article XII of the Constitution. The
bill provides that the objects and pur-
poses for which the indebtedness is
to be incurred must be specifically set
forth by ordinance and duly passed
by the Council or other municipal
governing body, fifteen days before
submitting the same to vote OF the
electors OF the city. The ordinance
conveying the relief must recite that
the object for which the indebtedness
is incurred is public necessity, and
must specify the amount required to
meet it. The bill then provides for
the issuance of nterest-bearing
bonds a. evidence of such indebted
nese, with interest not to exceed five
per cent. per annum. Asinking fund
is TO be set apart to liqaidate the
bonds when they become due, at the
end of twenty years. The bill then
explains the mode and manner in
VIII ich to determine whether the deb.
shall be incurred or not, and how the
bonds shall be issued if the vote is
affirmative. The taxes levied to
meet the interest on these bonds and
their Ii quotation at maturity are not
to be greater than fifty cents addi-
tional on each 500 valuation OF the
taxable property of the city for each
fiscal year. These are the main fea-
lures OF the Weber bill, which Mr..
Knox thinks would be good meas
ure to fall back upon ii Los Angeles
cannot get what she wants in the
shape OF charter. We do not doubt
that such law would help us out, ii
we need that kind Of help; that is, ii
we must absolutely have the power
of raising million or SO OF money
and issue bonds therefor, this bill
would be better than to ally ourselves
with Oakland and Sacramento under
q general law that could be amended
at will by the Legislature, and per-
haps greatly to our detriment. We
do not see exactly how this bill
avoids the Constitutional difficulty
about special legislation. To be sure,
it says that any city incorporated un-
der any law of this State may do so
and SO. But this lets down the bars
all around, and relegates our munich
palities bick to the very evils the new
Constitution tried to remedy. 1t en-
ables all corporations to run riot in
debt as they used to do under the
old Constitution, giving subsidies
to this railroad and its credit to that.
1t is hardly to be believed that the
whole spirit of the Constitution can
be altered by coup de main. The
Constitution is very careful to limit
the borrowing power of the municipal
corporations, and justly SO. The
people OF this State have felt the evil
Of that kind OF license, and rose up
against it in 1879, and, as we sup
posed, and as they supposed, effec u.
ally equelched it. If now all this can
be overcome by a simple law, Mr..
Weber is entitled to the credit OF
being great discoverer. But u SIM
pie law Of this character that would
suit Los Angeles, on account of her
sudden and phenomenal wants,
would not suit any other city in the
State. No other city would agree to
let the bars down against the incur
ring of almost unlimited indebted.
mess by their councils or other gov
erning bodies. Hence, ii this law is I
constitutional and practical, it will